ZooEurope

February 19, 2004

The thing is about going on a long trip is remembering all the details. As I go over everything in my head I can’t really remember what happened. I know when I start typing this I will start remembering all sorts of stuff, after all a lot can happen in five weeks. When you finally get home it feels like a blur almost like it never happened, but when your there it’s like it never ends. Hotel to hotel city to city demo to demo, I didn’t know were or when it was until I was back on the plane home. The thing I definitely remember was who was there. So what I decided to do is write about them. I know once I start typing about them I will remember at least some of the funny stuff that happened.

Aquil Brathwaite: Aquil is 15 years old. He is from Rhode Island. The thing I remember most about him was his eating habits. Dam they were bad. I mean this kid had the worst diet I had ever seen. He would get his per diem and all he would want was Subway and if he couldn’t get that then he wanted ham and cheese sandwiches. He was so bummed every time we went to eat because there was no subway and if he didn’t get ham and cheese then he would buy chips and gummy candy, we were in a restaurant on the side of the autobahn (not the wheel company) in Germany. Now understand that Germans love to drive and they love their cars so the rest stops were amazing. Not McDonalds and crap but really good food and the restaurants were unbelievably nice. The distributor was treating all of us to lunch and Aquil didn’t like any thing. So he bought party mix chips and soda. At one point he bought at least 20 dollars of gummy candy and had it in this big paper cone. I think it was about 2 or 3 pounds of candy. I walked over to the van and he was sitting in the front seat with the music blasting and his eyes were so wide open that they looked like two golf balls in his head. He was also shaking and jumping up and down so erratic and violent that I thought he was going to explode. Also his mood swings from all the sugar was intense. One second he’s jumping all over the place super psyched screaming and yelling that he wants to skate and lets go! Go! Go! Then he gets in the van all psyched up and he passes out, dead asleep, drool and everything. He would have crazy mood swings by the second, he would say in one breath “This sucks, I am so psyched right now. He would lie in bed eat chips and go right to sleep no brushing of the teeth or brushing the crumbs off the bed. Ahh to be 15 again!

Robert Lopez Mont: Where do I begin. Firs off his English wasn’t to good because he is from Puerto Rico so communication was sometimes difficult but I think he understands more then he lets on. When it was convenient for him to understand he did. Well it seemed kind of fishy to me too. One thing that drives any photographer crazy is when skaters were all black. Yeah ,yeah, yeah I know all about it everyone just found out about the Ramones (R.I.P) and everyone wants to where tight black clothes real tough and punk! But for photo’s it sucks! Every shirt the kid has is black, pain in the ass! At one point I had to stop him and say change your fuckin shirt! I constantly beg Jeff not to give them black shirts.

One day we were checking out of a hotel and the front desk people tell Jeff (Pang) that there is some black stuff on the sheets and they can’t get it out so he has to pay ten euros for it. So of course he’s pissed (weird he never gets pissed!) “Who was in that room and what the fuck is on the sheets!” Robert had a big jar of Nutella which is ‘s unbelievably good. Anyway Robert is eating it out of the jar with his hands like he’s Winnie the fuckin Pooh in his bed. Instead of getting up and washing his hands he wipes them off on the sheets! After Jeff takes 10 euros out of his per diem we ask him ” do you do that kind of stuff in your mothers house?” Of course he says no. “So why the fuck wouldn’t you get up and wash your hands off in the bathroom?He looks at Jeff and myself dead in the eye and says “it was too long.” At this point all we can really do is laugh.

Forrest Kirby: Well were do I begin with him. Being one of my best friends it’s going to be hard for me to point out some of his not so great moments, but what are friends for! When we were in Spain we stayed at this old woman’s house we called her Abuella wh ich means “grandma” in Spanish. She was a very nice lady but when she got mad she cursed like a sailor. She loved and hated Forrest. She only spoke Spanish and our friend Ivan would translate and in cases that he wasn’t their Forrest would just repeat what she said or he would just speak English and add an o on the end. For example for the word floor he would say flooro. She called Forrest ” Rissitos” which means curly hair, but a friend of mine told me it means one who curls his hair which is way better. Any way Forrest would come in to the house at 4 AM every night and wake her up and she would get up and curse at him in Spanish for what seemed like an eternity and all he would say to her is ” Abuela, Abuela, Abuela” which probably made her more mad. It wasn’t just Forrest, he was with “the wrong crowd” The only people she liked was Jeff and me. We kept our stuff together we got up and left early so she can clean the room and we were very quiet. Forrest is in a room with Aquil and Robert. Robert had dirty, stinky tighty whities on the floor and Aquil would eat chips in his bed. When we were leaving Robert knocked over this huge plant which left a huge pile of dirt on the floor. Of course she flipped out on him and through him out of the house. Back to Forrest, the night before we left she told us that she gets so mad at Forrest but when she looks at his beautiful face and his curly hair and she can’t stay mad at him. Also she told him that she cries for his mother. I think that is the worst thing an old woman can say to you. Way to go Forrest!

Zered Bassett: Boy Band! Do you understand what I’m saying to you when I say Boy Band! That’s the best way I can describe the phenomenon. There were so many girls after him that he had to hide! I am not exaggerating at all. Has anyone seen John, Paul, George or Ringo? No? That’s right you didn’t because they are hiding in the back of the van with Zered and Justin Timberlake? Who even thinks that? maybe Wilt Chamberlin, and now Zered got it must be good to be 18 and on the top of your game. The one thing about Zered is he does not bring enough socks on tour. He borrowed socks from everyone when your on the rode for 40 days you should make sure you bring enough socks. Not a very fun smell at all.

Brian “Turtle” Brown: What can I say about Turtle Brown the first thing I must say is that I’m very proud of him. Very, very proud of him, He’s all growns up now! It almost brings a tear to my eye. When I see all the leaps and bounds he made. God I’m proud of that boy. I got to explain this when you watch someone grow from a little kid to a man it really makes you think, you know what I mean. Hell I don’t even know what I mean. It’s just one of those things I think that…what was I talking about. Oh yeah Turtle, When he gets stressed its pretty funny. I hate when people mess with me when I get stressed but I know I must look twice as funny as Turtle because it’s a riot to watch him. At one point I think he tried to pull his own head off. We slow mowed some footy of Turtle stressing and that’s what it looked like. I swear if you saw it you would think the same thing. Well when you get to that point and you got to do something, and maybe popping your head off your shoulder is the thing to do. Hey who am I to judge, you got to do what you gotta do.

Jeff Pang: The faithful team manager. The one component that can make or break a trip especially a long one like this one Jeff is really good at talking control of situations and working them out. He usually does it diplomatically kind of like, I don’t know? What is some of his diplomatic tactics? Oh yeah here is one” too bad!” or my favorite is ” I’ll punch you in the face!” I also like “yeah see what happens!” I’m just kidding. He works shit out right and everyone respects him enough to listen to him to make his life a lot easier. Jeff pissed is not a real fun time. It’s kind of like walking through a hailstorm with no jacket on and the wind whipping you in your face like a rolled up towel that your boy keeps snapping at you. Your eyes have to be shut because every time you open them it feels like some one got a hose on your face with ice chunks in it it’s a struggle to take a step forward and the hail keeps on pelting you and there is nothing to do to stop it, well you get the point. God forbid someone fucks with one of the skaters lets not even go down that road. I think sometimes he ‘s like an old lion in the jungle who still needs to roar just so everyone knows that he is still king. But if he come a roaring you betta gets ta runnin!

R.B. Umali: The good old filmer. What skate trip is complete without one? What can I say about him? Well for one he is one of the easiest people I ever met in my life. The littlest things keep him happy. A place to rest his head and a place to rest his computer. Not a very demanding person at all. One thing that drives me nuts about filmers is the size of their bag. Well actually I’m just jealous. They got these little ass bags with one camera an extra battery or two and a death lense. My bag got tons of cameras, lenses, flashes, batteries, film, and basically its got a lot of weight. I look at it like this, we all got crosses to bear right? So that’s mine. Oh yeah one more thing, I hate the death lens. Can you move back please? RB is good with it, we make it work.

Well that’s everyone of any importance that came on the trip with us. See I remembered some good stuff. I knew once I started typing I would remember. I’m sorry if I left some of the details out but take it at face value. I’m not sorry for leaving some people out and I made sure not to remember some situations and people who need to be forgotten. What did I just say? You know what I’m getting at. I think? Maybe? Well? Just look at all the photo, that’s where the story is. You know what if you actually took the time to read this look at all the photos again and make your own story up. Even better rip the pages out and photo copy them and make your own mag. You write the story. So whatever happened happened, or it didn’t. You the man not me. Later!

on’t know? What is some of his diplomatic tactics? Oh yeah here is one” too bad!” or my favorite is ” I’ll punch you in the face!” I also like “yeah see what happens!” I’m just kidding. He works shit out right and everyone respects him enough to listen to him to make his life a lot easier. Jeff pissed is not a real fun time. It’s kind of like walking through a hailstorm with no jacket on and the wind whipping you in your face like a rolled up towel that your boy keeps snapping at you. Your eyes have to be shut because every time you open them it feels like some one got a hose on your face with ice chunks in it it’s a struggle to take a step forward and the hail keeps on pelting you and there is nothing to do to stop it, well you get the point. God forbid someone fucks with one of the skaters lets not even go down that road. I think sometimes he ‘s like an old lion in the jungle who still needs to roar just so everyone knows that he is still king. But if he come a roaring you betta gets ta runnin!

R.B. Umali: The good old filmer. What skate trip is complete without one? What can I say about him? Well for one he is one of the easiest people I ever met in my life. The littlest things keep him happy. A place to rest his head and a place to rest his computer. Not a very demanding person at all. One thing that drives me nuts about filmers is the size of their bag. Well actually I’m just jealous. They got these little ass bags with one camera an extra battery or two and a death lense. My bag got tons of cameras, lenses, flashes, batteries, film, and basically its got a lot of weight. I look at it like this, we all got crosses to bear right? So that’s mine. Oh yeah one more thing, I hate the death lens. Can you move back please? RB is good with it, we make it work.

Well that’s everyone of any importance that came on the trip with us. See I remembered some good stuff. I knew once I started typing I would remember. I’m sorry if I left some of the details out but take it at face value. I’m not sorry for leaving some people out and I made sure not to remember some situations and people who need to be forgotten. What did I just say? You know what I’m getting at. I think? Maybe? Well? Just look at all the photo, that’s where the story is. You know what if you actually took the time to read this look at all the photos again and make your own story up. Even better rip the pages out and photo copy them and make your own mag. You write the story. So whatever happened happened, or it didn’t. You the man not me. Later!